On The Riley Files, Oklahoma insider Kegan Reneau made the simple-enough point that Lincoln Riley was dealing with distractions, turmoil, and his own inner conflicts swirling in his mind, the inner conflicts which eventually led him out the door to USC.
Exactly what, exactly when, Riley’s mind changed? We’ll never know. It’s impossible to pinpoint precisely when that moment occurred … but something just didn’t feel right. That’s the simple point to absorb.
“Something fell off from the very beginning (of 2021),” Reneau said. “It was just the way fall camp (unfolded). Lincoln Riley is very ‘closed doors’ when it comes to what information gets in, what information gets out. It was even tighter last year in the offseason. During fall camp, there wasn’t a ton of people talking about how practices were going. It felt ‘off’ from the get-go. You start to hear more and more the quarterbacks don’t get along, the defense isn’t trusting, the (offensive) players aren’t trusting the defense. There’s just so much that something was off. I can’t to this day put my finger on when or where you could (mark the change).
“I was told that there was a change after the SEC deal was announced. There was a contract extension ready for Lincoln and Oklahoma to agree to that was left unsigned.
“That sends some alarm bells off in your head. Something’s not right. Something’s off, there’s something weird going on. It felt that way. Then the results reflected that. It was just weird, just a weird preseason, a weird first game, a weird game against Nebraska (in mid-September). Then came the Kansas State game. It felt like they finally got their mojo back. And I think a lot of people even nationally felt that way about Oklahoma at that point. And then the Texas game happened, which ended up being one of the greatest OU Texas games in the history of the series, matching what they were able to do in 2020, but things just felt off.
“I don’t have any facts behind it or why it felt that way, but I’m not the only person in the (Oklahoma) media or behind the scenes that said that. And so it’s just interesting. I can’t put my finger on the reasons why, but for an Oklahoma program, it just felt off.”
Why will Lincoln Riley be a better coach at USC in 2022? He won’t be dealing with the storms — some of them inside his own heart and head — of 2021.
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